Conflict Management

Outline

Collaboration is key to a business organization's success. But conflict is inevitable in any team environment. To put it simply, conflict is when needs, values, and interests of individuals and groups are thought to be at odds with one another. It is an inevitable occurrence that appears in all facets of existence. Employee ideas, attitudes, and perceptions are just a few of the factors that might lead to conflict in an organizational setting.

Conflicts can have a detrimental effect on employees' productivity. For instance, a worker can opt to change jobs because they feel unfairly treated. Consequently, it is imperative that organizations use conflict management to lower conflict. If management is aware of employee behavior, it may successfully conduct conflict management. As a result, conflict management is an effective organizational behavior tool for managing and regulating employee behavior. It can be put into practice by mediation, arbitration, and discussions aimed at finding a constructive solution to disagreements.

COMMUNICATION WITH CONFLICTS

Let's define the phrase in order to better grasp the concept of conflict. The explanations of disputes given by various authors are as follows:"

Conflict is the struggle between incompatible or opposing requirements, desires, thoughts, passions, or people," state Chung and Meggison. In their opinion, When individuals or groups have objectives that neither side can successfully achieve, conflict results.

"The condition of objective contradiction between values and goals; as the behavior of deliberately interfering with another's goal achievement; and as emotionally in terms of hostility," is how Pondy defines conflict.

Conflict behavior has been described by descriptive theorists in terms of subjective conflict of interest, individual styles, responses to danger, and cognitive distortions. Thus, friction that arises from real or perceived differences between people or groups can be characterized as conflict. Three of the most important ways that conflict is perceived are diverse and unique. These are listed in the following order:

1. Traditional View: This perspective holds that all kinds of conflicts are bad for an organization. Consequently, it is imperative to avoid disagreements at all costs. This viewpoint contends that managers ought to make an effort to suppress all kinds of disputes inside the company.
2. The conflict viewpoint held by human relations experts holds that conflict is a natural occurrence. Conflict, according to this viewpoint, is necessary for an organization to succeed and advance. This is due to the fact that disputes enable people to overcome challenges and carry out tasks more successfully.
3. The interactionist perspective on conflict holds that for a group to function well, disagreement is required. This is so because successful outcomes arise from conflicts.

The harmonious, passive groups are prone to become stagnant and non-responsive towards the needs for change and innovation, which can be a major hindrance in the progress of the organization," claims Stephen P. Robbins.

Here are a few of the primary traits of conflict:

When two or more people pursue goals that are incompatible, it happens.

People attempt to stop others from achieving their objectives when there is a disagreement.

The inability of an individual to decide on the best course of action is the cause of it.

When the intended and actual roles are not aligned, it happens.

Conflict begins when the objectives of one department or person collide with those of another.

SOURCES OF DISPUTES

Teams are formed in an organizational context by people with different origins, cultures, and personalities coming together. These differences lead to a variety of circumstances or elements, which in turn lead to conflicts.

Some of the main causes of disputes inside organizations are listed below:

Communication: When there is poor or nonexistent communication, conflict results. Conflict may arise if an organization's staff members are not properly informed. For instance, a boss can neglect to let a team member know that a meeting is happening. The team member might think that it's intentional to leave them out.

Personal Variables: Employees differ in terms of their values and personalities. Conflicts arise because of this individual difference. For instance, a talkative person could come seen as impolite to their coworkers.

Unrealistic Expectations: This describes the unrealistic demands that management places on staff members. Unrealistic expectations can demotivate employees. Conflict between managers and staff could result from this. A management might assign a team member to finish a task for the full day in a few hours, for instance.

Change: Employee resistance to organizational change is a typical occurrence. Change-averseness breeds conflict. For instance, the installation of new machinery in a manufacturing organization causes employees to feel insecure about their jobs.

Objective: The objectives of two or more people or departments may overlap and cause disputes. For example, the quality department strives for a faultless product, while the manufacturing department wants to deliver the product on schedule.

Variation in Principles: These show that people are emotionally invested in and uncompromising of their own value systems, which differ from one another. One person's ideals may clash with another in such a situation, sometimes resulting in conflict. Let's say there are two salespeople trying to offer a product. According to one salesperson, lying to a customer in order to get them to purchase a product is okay. But the other simply thinks that honorable methods are acceptable.

Behavior: This suggests that an individual's severe defensive or offensive activity can be a reason for conflict.?

ASPECTS OF CONFLICTS: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

Opinion differences between individuals or groups give rise to organizational conflict. Conflicts can have both beneficial and harmful effects, though. Some detrimental effects of conflicts include the following:

Performance Degradation: Disputes drain a lot of energy from both the parties involved and the organization. Performance suffers as a result of this. An employee who spends a lot of time arguing with a coworker, for instance, finds it difficult to complete duties on time.

Demotivation among employees is a contributing factor to low employee retention. Low retention results from this increased workforce turnover. Employees who feel like they are the victims of conflicts, for instance, could have a bad opinion of the company and look for possibilities elsewhere.

Among the advantages of conflict are the following:

Organizational Culture Shift: Conflicts can be used to pinpoint possible trouble spots in a company. Taking care of the issues causes the organizational culture to shift. For instance, an HR policy may be modified to the benefit of all other employees upon the complaint of prejudice made by an employee.

Contest: In an organization, conflict can lead to constructive competition. This contributes to higher quality and productivity. For instance, when two departments compete to do superior work, both departments succeed.

Innovation: When disagreements lead to more competitiveness, employees may become more creative. For instance, a worker may try to outdo a teammate in order to establish their superiority and come up with ideas that will benefit the group as a whole.

FUNCTIONAL CONFLICTS

Neeraj and Gayatri both work for advertising agencies. Gayatri and Neeraj both generate excellent ideas during a brainstorming session for a client's product. Their boss can't decide which of their ideas is superior. He says they have one week to make their proposal even better and that the client will be presented with the winner. A series of confrontations arise between Gayatri and Neeraj as a result of their intense rivalry. However, their supervisor is still unable to determine which is the better suggestion even a week later. Neeraj and Gayatri are both requested to pitch their ideas to the client. The client chooses to adopt both of the concepts for different products since she is quite happy. The result is double profits for the business.

We refer to the disagreement between Gayatri and Neeraj as a functional conflict. Here, two employees disagree over novel concepts and work to come up with better ones in order to achieve organizational objectives. Constructive conflicts that uphold the objectives of the organization and enhance its performance are referred to as functional conflicts. People who are really interested in listening to one other and addressing difficulties are involved in functional disputes. In order to generate creative ideas and enhance team performance, it is a fantastic idea to stimulate functional disputes. In order to foster effective conflicts, team members must be encouraged to support or refute ideas based on pertinent information rather than their own views.

The two strategies for provoking functional conflicts are as follows:

Devil's Advocacy: In this strategy, a team member is given the position of a critic. This guy will never stop criticizing whatever ideas the team may have. This promotes critical thinking in the atmosphere. That being said, the critic's position should rotate throughout the team so that no one person gets a bad reputation.

Method of Dialogue: This entails debating opposing viewpoints before making a choice. The group is better able to make wise selections after hearing the advantages and disadvantages of various concepts.

DYSFUNCTIONAL CONFLICTS

Within a software company, there is constant friction between the testing team, led by Rohit, and the development team, led by Mayank. This functional conflict has been fostered by Sheetal, the delivery head. But eventually, certain members of the development team begin picking confrontations with testers. The fights cause delays in work, propagate rumors, and result in a few resignations.

The situation involves a functional disagreement that has devolved into a dysfunctional conflict. A dysfunctional conflict is made up of several disagreements and conflicts that make the organization operate worse. It involves individuals who are hesitant to collaborate to achieve a common objective and find a solution to a specific issue. There are several strategies for handling dysfunctional conflicts in the workplace. These are a few of these techniques:

Integrating:?The problem-solving approach is another name for this process. It is about getting the other side to confront the problem together, come up with a solution, and decide which course of action is best. With the aid of this technique, many misunderstandings can be cleared. When Sheetal convenes a conference between the two teams, for instance, in the scenario, both parties come to the realization that their arguments were baseless or the result of miscommunication.

Obliging: In order to allay the opposition's concerns, a party using this strategy disregards their own. Instead than highlighting differences, it highlights similarities. Mayank's team, for instance, decides to apologize to Rohit's team after seeing that the argument has gotten out of hand in the scenario.

Dominating: This is the mindset of those who have an I-win-you-lose attitude. Using formal authority to compel compliance is what it entails. It also serves as a tool for implementing controversial but crucial fixes. Consider a situation where a project is being hampered by disagreements between the joint project managers. In situations such as these, the general manager must intervene and force one of the project managers to take the other's place.

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